Last of the Greats
by Aubrie1234
Summary: "...I must be dreaming. Either that or this is a hallucination, an illusion, or some d*mn alternate world, because there is NO WAY this should be possible. Especially with Balder and Elinu being alive at the same time. I'm leaning more towards illusion right now..." A child who has lost everything finds refuge in the past, though he did not seek to go there. What will be his fate?
1. Chapter 1

Last of the Greats

By: Aubrie1234

* * *

He leaned against a tree, glancing back. No hunters, only the landscape of Darkquaver Woods. But they would be back on his trail soon enough. He had to keep moving. Taking a step, however, he staggered. His staff was the only thing preventing him from falling. He leaned heavily on it, wheezing painfully. He could feel the pain everywhere, but because there was so much of it, he could barely feel anything else.

 _Move._ his mind ordered, so he pushed off his staff and used it like a crutch to help him walk. He didn't know the extent of his wounds, but he knew that, if he had been human, he would have been dead for sure. He was glad he had the healing powers attributed to the gods. Or god, as it was now.

He thought back to what had started this hunt. Didn't the other gods already learn their lesson during the Divine War? But no, Thulsa and Akasha had to start up the old feuds again. And look where it got them. Icaruna and the other gods were gone, he was the only one left. Not even Father was able to survive Mystel's and Zenobia's part of the war. And once the morals had discovered that he was the only god left, they went into a frenzy, wanting him dead more than anything else. Honestly, he didn't blame them, after what he had done. But without him, they wouldn't know anything else of the past, which the Mysterium loved to discover. But they were indifferent, thinking they could discover the past on their own. The b*****ds...

He gasped as a pain in his side made him seize up, unable to move. He closed his eyes, willing the pain to go away. He was too weak to use his magic, which was why he was so injured. And with his side hurting whenever he tried to move, he couldn't go anywhere. He began to look around as best he could, keeping an eye out for hunters, and blinked at what he saw. He was in Darkquaver Woods, wasn't he? Well, it looked more like he was somehow in Seeliewood. How did he get there so fast? But if he got there ahead of time, then he could rest for a while, right? They would still be searching the Susurrus and Darkquaver Woods before they ever found out he went to Seeliewood. And yet, there were also those who knew Seeliewood was created by his sister for Isren, so he couldn't even be safe here. But the plants and grass look so soft...

His tiredness seemed to increase tenfold. He wanted to keep going, but couldn't. He was just too weak. Just a small nap... Closing his eyes, he was quickly overcome by sleep and knew no more.

* * *

"Catch me if you can!" Icaruna laughed, zipping by her siblings and cousins. Some of the semi-gods were playing tag together, or what they called Touch & Go. There were some who watched them play while others were elsewhere. The paradise the Original Twelve had created was amazing. In the middle was a giant castle big enough to hold them all, and around them was the garden created by Seren, Isren, Icaruna, and Balder. No mortals could get into their paradise, leaving them be.

With the garden always growing, a few of the adventurous ones were off exploring, including Arachne and Yurian. Yurian had made it his job to keep Arachne out of trouble, which is almost impossible to do. Doesn't stop him from trying, though.

"C'mon, keep up!" Arachne laughed, swinging overhead by her silk threads.

"Then slow down!" Yurian cried, running as fast as he could. She laughed even more, swinging farther away, until her laughter suddenly became a shriek. Worried, Yurian ran faster, soon finding her on the ground, hands over her mouth as she stared. When he saw what she was staring at, Yurian gasped.

"...G-get the others." Yurian ordered, kneeling down and feeling for a pulse. He found one, but it was quite weak, "Get them right now, especially Elinu." Arachne was already swinging away; Elinu was the best god or goddess to go to when you're hurt, as she's the best healer. They had found someone, gravely injured, but what caught their attention the most was the similarities he held with their cousin, Killian.

"How can you even be alive...?" Yurian questioned aloud in shock when he examined the extent of the boy's injuries, or at least what he could see. One entire half of the boy's face was bruised and bleeding, as if he had been in a fight. And it certainly looked as if he had been in the fight for his life. Blood soaked the boy's clothes everywhere, and Yurian felt disgusted when he found bones sticking out of a few patches. There were probably more injuries under the clothes, and a trickle of blood seemed to have dried on the side of the boy's mouth. Glancing up, he found a staff beside the boy. The top of it had a scary-looking head, and the other end had a curved spike. It looked similar to the spike and mini-shield covering the boy's left pinky, actually. And the fake wings on his back added to the disturbing, fallen angel look.

The question was, though, if this was another version of Killian, where had he come from and why was he so badly hurt?

"Yurian? Yurian, where are you?" Elinu called. Arachne must have alerted her, probably everyone, as the spider-like goddess wasn't exactly quiet.

"Over here!" Plants rustled as they parted for the giant elin. Her eyes widened at the sight of the injured boy, but she quickly overcame her shock and began to examine him.

"It's a wonder how he's alive, isn't it?" Yurian voiced her thoughts. She nodded, then turned behind her.

"Arachne, I'll need your silk to help this boy." Hesitantly, Arachne came forward.

"Okay, use your thread here and here..." Eventually, all of the boy's visible, bleeding injuries were covered, allowing Elinu to pick him up at last.

"Head back to the castle, both of you, and make sure neither Killian nor Icaruna sees this. _Especially_ not Killian." The children nodded. They had known that right at the sight of the boy. To make sure the other children would be distracted, Elinu sent them on ahead. Looking down at the child in her arms, she could only wonder whether they would get good answers from the Killian-lookalike.

* * *

"You're back!" Ishara cheered, "So what did you need Mom for?" Arachne was about to answer when Yurian silenced her with a look.

"It's nothing. At least, nothing we need to worry about." The other children gave him skeptical looks.

"Are you sure? You both look spooked." Akasha pointed out.

"And you know we'll investigate anyway." Kaia added. Yurian and Arachne shared a glance.

"We can't let you do that." Arachne sighed, "We barely know what's going on ourselves."

"So we can't see or know _anything_?" Iannis asked incredulously.

"Not now, anyway." Yurian said, "If we let Elinu do her job in private, we might have a chance to find out later." This interested the others. Some may be more well-behaved than others, but that didn't mean that they wouldn't snoop around once in a while. With that prospect on their minds, many of them left, following Yurian and Arachne as they left. Balder was the only one to glance back, and what he saw shocked him, but he made no sound and continued walking. He then understood why Yurian and Arachne were keeping it a secret for now.

* * *

"Stop giving me strange looks!"

"What? What do you mean?"

"You, Yurian, and even Balder have been staring at me! Is this about that secret?"

"Er..." Before Arachne could speak, Yurian silenced her again with the same stare as before. Killian sat back, crossing his arms. They were sitting in the Meeting Chamber, as all of the Twelve were involved with what was going on.

"Your looks seemed anxious and worried, actually." Seren added, "What is going on that concerns Killian?"

 _We are NOT good secretkeepers._ the three thought before Balder answered.

"Well, I just looked back and caught a glimpse of what was going on."

"But how does it relate to me?"

"Egotistical much?" Velik prodded, where Killian gave her a withering glare. It was at that moment Sikander came in. His four-legged bird-like body was stiff, as if he hadn't moved for some time. He gave them all somber looks, especially Killian and Icaruna.

"Come, children. Though I wish you to brace yourselves, because this will be very shocking for many of you. Our guest has an interesting tale to tell, and he wanted to make sure you were all there before he told it."

"So he's awake?!" Arachne sounded relieved, which was reflected on her and Yurian's faces. Sikander nodded, then turned and walked away, forcing the semi-gods to follow. He led the way through the castle until they were at Elinu's room, where she took care of the injured. He paused, making another glance back at them, and again his gaze rested longer on Killian and Icaruna more than the others.

"Again, I caution you to brace yourselves." Sikander then nudged open the door with his head.

"I'm _not_ sorry for my sharp tongue!" a familiar voice said, echoing from the room, "If you had a chance to go through the same stuff I did, you would resent a lot of others, too!"

"You should still respect your elders!" Gidd argued.

"The only elder I've known for so long is Father, and I never gave him any slack! If you want respect from me, then you're going to have to do more than that!" There was a pause, which allowed the children to enter. Immediately, they stopped in their tracks, eyes going wide in shock. The boy on the bed did the same, though you could only see one eye, as the other was bandaged.

"...I must be dreaming. Either that or this is a hallucination, an illusion, or some d**n alternate world because there is NO WAY this should be possible. Especially with Balder and Elinu being alive at the same time." He rubbed the bridge of his nose between his fingers in anxiety, closing his available eye in the process, "I'm leaning more towards illusion right now..."

The reason why everyone was shocked at him was that he sounded and looked _just like_ Killian. But that image was marred by the bandages that covered his body, mostly on his chest, arms, legs, even his feet and hands. Lying beside him, on the bed, was a full-body suit that, though bloodied, was quite jester-like. On the bedside stand were a scary-looking staff and a strange metal thing. It looked like a mini-shield that could fit on your hand, but protruding from it was a spike similar to the one at the other end of the staff. He was either wearing his own boxers or clean ones, probably a pair of Killian's own; it was the only thing he was wearing, as the rest of his body was covered by bandages and even a few places had casts.

"I wish _one_ of you had told me this." he sighed to the Twelve, who did not look guilty at all, except maybe Elinu and Isren, "Though with how you've all responded, I'm inclined to believe I'm in an alternate world. Which I'm not actually surprised about."

"...Who the h**l are you?!" Thulsa demanded.

"Ah, _there's_ the shout I was waiting to hear." the boy nodded to himself and opened his eye, smiling sadly, "I'm Killian. I'm you, just older and from an entirely different dimension. You're lucky, you know, since you've still got everything. Me?" he gave a bark of a harsh laugh, "I've got nothing!" He then winced and held his side, stifling a moan of pain.

"How do you have nothing?" Shakan asked, "Don't you have other gods to talk to?"

"I wish I could say yes, but they wiped themselves out." his eyes darkened, "No one ever learns, do they? You try to teach them a lesson, it flies right out of their heads and they make the same mistakes time and time again. The Divine War didn't teach them anything, I bet." He then sighed again, "Honestly, I'm the only god left."

"You said you had a story to tell, once we were all together." Saleron said.

"Yes, I do, but none of you will like it. Do you still want to hear?"

"Yes." The younger Killian stepped out from his siblings and approached his older self, "We all want to know, especially me." Smiling, Older Killian patted the free sport beside him, not taken up by his suit.

"Then sit down, because this is going to be a _long_ story."

* * *

 _ **Yes, everyone mentioned here is a real god in TERA. You just have to look. I mostly used TERA Wiki for them, so if I made mistakes, tell me. Also, there are going to be more TERA stories like this, with characters going into this alternate past world. Anyway, though, READ & REVIEW!**_


	2. Chapter 2

Last of the Greats

By: Aubrie1234

* * *

"Where should I begin?" the older boy thought back, "Well, let's go back to before the Divine War. I'll get to that and what happened to me later. In my world, since this seems to be an alternate one, we weren't exactly a happy family. The Twelve fought all the time, so the other semi-gods and I never made good relationships with one another. Things only got worse when Elinu gave birth to Balder and Ishara."

"How did that make things worse?" Oryin questioned.

"My Elinu died in childbirth, and Karas was so devastated at the loss that he left and never returned. Thulsa, seeing an opportunity to conquer the other gods, I guess, attacked the other semi-gods and started the Divine War, which was a war between the gods. Many of us took sides quickly except for Isren, Balder, Tithus, and a few others. We either took sides with the gods of Shara or the gods of Arun. There were many more on the Arun side than the Shara side, actually. However, for those who didn't with to fight...their peace wasn't to last."

"What happened?" Ishara was excited, despite dampening when she heard how her mother had died.

"I'm getting to that." the older Killian sighed, "Both Isren and Tithus were trying to keep the peace, but were killed because of that. Their deaths signified in our war that no one was to be able to stay out of it. It was either fight or die, there was no in between. As the war wore on, other gods were killed off as well. One of the more notable deaths were that of Lok and Balder. Balder, after Tithus' death, stepped in as peacekeeper and also keeper of the heavenly realm, where we were at our strongest, such as in this paradise. Both sides respected Balder, though, which was why he wasn't killed so quickly. There's also a legend that says he ripped out his eyes and threw them into the sky, creating the twin suns, but that is a blatant lie. Honestly, I don't know where they got that from..."

"Back to the Divine War, though." Karas urged.

"Right, right... As I was saying, Balder mostly survived because of the respect both sides held for him. However, Ishara, jealous of her brother, convinced Lok that Balder was insane, so Lok created a machine to steal Balder's power. He didn't know it would kill Balder however, and before he could reveal where he had hidden the machine, Shakan, Balder's bodyguard, killed Lok. To this day the remaining gods are weaker than they had been before the war and we still can't return to this place." That saddened the group a bit, but the older Killian continued on without another thought, "As gods of the races were killed, other gods began to adopt those races. Velik adopted the humans from Gidd and Kaia to the aman from Amarun. None of the other gods really adopted other races except those two. And speaking of Amarun, his fight with Zulas is what caused the amani to become enslaved by the giants, with their numerous defeats."

"What?!" both Amarun and Zulas roared in rage.

"We worked so hard to defy them, and now you're saying _I_ caused his people to be enslaved?!"

"Yes, I do." he was glaring at her, "Before Lok died, he invented a machine that helped to free the amani, so you're lucky there wasn't another war with the giants. The Divine War was bad enough. Do you realize that the _majority_ of the gods were killed? Only myself, Father, Sikander, Akasha, Mystel, Kaia, Thulsa, Velik, and Zenobia survived, as well as Icaruna, but the way she survived is different from the rest of us."

"How did I survive, then?" Icaruna asked, curious. Older Killian grimaced.

"It's not a happy story, to tell the truth. But, if you wish to know, I'll tell you. Don't say I didn't warn you." he then began his tale, closing his eye, "It was during a battle Father was involved in. Ica and I were sitting on the sidelines, watching. We, along with Father, were on the Shara side with Sikander, Thulsa, and so on. That was also the first time Sikander became Kelsaik."

"Kelsaik?" Sikander frowned, as did the rest of the Twelve.

"It's sort of your alternate personality, in a way, but very evil. Known as the god of annihilation, he could destroy the world if he wanted." Older Killian shook his head, "He pretty much decimated the battlefield before we could get him under control. But by that time, both Dagon and Shakan had been killed in his rampage. The debris had been thrown everywhere, even over to where Icaruna and I had been sitting." he opened his eye and frowned sadly, "I was a coward. In those few moments, I froze, but Ica didn't. She saved my life by pushing me out of the way, but she wasn't as lucky. She was stuck under the boulder, slowly crushing to death. With Father and the other gods struggling to keep Kelsaik under control, there was no way they would have been able to save my sister in time. So I made a choice, a very drastic one: I took her soul and merged it with mine so she would survive. In a way, she both died and survived. I owed my life to her, but Father was devastated after the battle. I don't blame him, and it was strange sharing a body with Ica. That was going to take some getting used to." Icaruna was gripping Younger Killian's hand tightly, afraid. He was trying to reassure her.

"But if her soul merged with your's, then where is she now?" Iannis asked.

"I'll get to that later. But by the end of the war, the 9 of us, 10 if you include Ica, were the only ones to survive. The other gods either died or disappeared. Even a few were imprisoned or imprisoned themselves. At the death of Isren and after his brief rages as Kelsaik, Sikander locked himself away. And in a way similar to how I was trying to protect Ica, I imprisoned Father. It's not something I'm proud of, nor is it the first. There are many things I've come to not be proud of, as they are horrible in everyone's minds, including my own."

"Then what happened after the Divine War?" Arachne asked, tapping one of her 4 legs in anticipation.

"Well, cults for some of the gods sprang up and I joined with Thulsa and Akasha to regain our powers, even though we had no idea where Lok's machine was. And Lok was one of the gods with a cult, along with Dagon. Kaia and Velik helped their adopted races to build cities in their names, Velika and Kaiator. And, of course, we had some trouble with Lakan..."

"Why would I cause trouble?" Lakan was one of the semi-gods who didn't cause much trouble.

"You took one of Zulas' branches of devas and helped them become archdevas, who meddled with blood magic." All of the gods understood what he meant at that, as they knew what blood magic was, "For that reason the archdevas were trapped in Northern Arun by a magical storm barrier, along with a group of barakas, and Lakan was imprisoned."

"Northern Arun?" the other gods blinked in question.

"The mortals have decided to name the continents as Arun and Shara, splitting them into North and South. Arun is on the right while Shara is on the left. Velika is located in Southern Arun with Kaiator is in Northern Shara, actually. But as for myself, I'm not sure if it was the near death of my sister or what, but she and I began torturing people. Aman, elves, humans, no one was spared. We did it for centuries, and it's one of the things I really hate about myself." The gods didn't know what to say when they heard that, "The only reason I hate it now is because of another near death experience, thanks to a few heroes. They were given the task of defeating the evil gods, which were myself, Akasha, and Thulsa. They were especially mad after Thulsa had the bright idea of bringing Kelsaik back. They nearly killed us, even though we managed to escape, and it gave me a new reason to live. Not only for myself, but for Ica. I had taken our immortality for granted, and the near-death reminded me of what I had to be thankful for. So, I've been trying to redeem myself. Akasha and Thulsa, though, have and did not."

"...So, what about now, in the present?" Gluda asked, trying to remove the thoughts of an insane Killian from her mind. The others were doing the same.

"Well, Shandra has come back."

"Shandra?"

"Shandra Manaya. ...Are you f***ing _serious_?! You've never heard of her?!" They shook their heads and Older Killian rubbed the bridge of his nose again.

"Alright, then let me give you this explanation: Manahan was the first god, made from Shara's and Arun's essences. However, she wanted to create something herself, like what Shara and Arun did when they created the Twelve, but could only mimic. That was when she created Shandra Manaya, who was neither a god nor the start of a race. After seeing what Manahan could do, they were afraid that Manahan could do much worse, so they sealed her away before they went to sleep, and now her name is an ancient one best left forgotten. As for Shandra, she controls a strange, half-mechanical/half-natural race called the Argons, which can also transform other creatures and races into argons. She used to live underground but soon came above through the Dark Cave and has been ravaging Northern Shara with her minions. Another regret of mine is that Thulsa, Akasha and I made a deal with her, where we could use some of her argons in exchange for... _something_. She never told us what she wanted, which made Akasha and I suspicious, but not Thulsa. He was too worried about getting his powers back to care, really."

"Manahan...Why have we never heard of her name or Shandra's, then?" Ur wondered. Older Killian shrugged.

"I don't know. It might be because this is an alternate world, where everything is better, happier..." A look came to his eye, a strange, tired one, "You're lucky, you know. You still have everyone, you don't have Kelsaik, you have better relations...You've got a better world than mine in any way you put it. Lately, things have gotten worse."

"What do you mean? Are those 'worse things' what did this to you?" Gidd asked.

"Yes. After the heroes managed to kill Kelsaik, which in turn killed Sikander, Shandra and the argons took his body away to study. The only thing they got out of it was an object called Sikander's Flame, a very powerful flame that somehow still held a part of Sikander, even after he had been forced to become Kelsaik. The heroes recovered that and killed Shandra at the same time. However, a month or so after that, Thulsa and Akasha got into disputes with the other gods again, causing a mini Divine War. All of the remaining gods became involved and, like the last one, killed each other off until I was left."

"And Icaruna?" Zenobia asked.

"It was during the part of the war in Southern Shara, between you and Mystel. It was where I had imprisoned Father, so I had gone to check on him and got caught in the crossfire. But I survived again, once again in thanks to Icaruna." For the first time, tears sprung to the boy's eye, "One of us had to die so the other could live. She chose to be that one. Again, I owe her my life, but there's no way I can tell her that now, is there? Either way, Father still died and the fighting between Mystel and Zenobia continued until they were both killed. It makes me wonder how Thulsa managed to goad them into fighting each other when they were always on the sidelines. And soon enough, I found myself the only god left. With no one to confirm if Lakan and Manahan were still alive, that left me. It whipped the mortals into a frenzy of revenge, wishing to get rid of me for good so they could live in a godless world. Sometimes, I wonder if the titans cried in their sleep for what we did to each other. We were their children and grandchildren, but what did we do? We destroyed ourselves." They saw his shoulders shake as he tried to hold in his sobs. It must have hurt him badly if he was going to cry. In sympathy, Saleron picked the boy up gently.

"Children, I think it's time we left." Dagon said. It wasn't an order, but a statement. The children followed it anyway, with Sikander and some of the other Twelve following them. They sat silently outside Elinu's room as Saleron and Zulas comforted their alternate child with the door closed.

"...Wow. Just...wow." Yurian breathed, "I never expected anything like that."

"And he's only a child..." Elinu said somberly, Isren shaking her head.

"But now that he's here, he's safe, isn't he?" Akasha asked, "That isn't going to happen to us?"

"He said that this was an alternate world, so possibly not, but as for his safety..." Gluda shook her head, "I don't know. If he somehow came here, then there's a chance others from his world could come through."

"But Yurian and Arachne, if you could show our parents where you found him, then maybe they could block it off, like they did with the storm barrier." Balder suggested.

"It's possible, but we've never done something like that before." Sikander said, "We don't know what would happen, what we would have to do, or anything."

"But until we do, we might as well keep watch on the area." Shakan said.

"Alright, but no one should go alone and the groups should only watch for an hour until they are relieved on their duties." Tithus said.

"Then where is he going to stay?" Thulsa asked.

"Until he gets better, he stays with me. Afterwords-"

"He can stay with us." They all looked to Killian, who had spoke up. He and his sister had stayed together since they had heard the news of how she died. They also shared a room, they were so close.

"Are you sure-?" Killian nodded to Gidd's question.

"Positive." Icaruna added, "Seeing me, even if I'm not his Icaruna, might help him out a bit. He _needs_ help." That they all agreed on.

"But we can't just keep calling him Older Killian. How about Ian? Or you could go by it, Killian." Mystel suggested.

"We can figure that out once we get to it. For now, let's go to bed. It's getting late." Despite that, none of them were tired.

"Okay..." The children split off into their own little groups, going to their rooms. Yurian, still keeping an eye on Arachne, slept with her, and there were other semi-gods who slept together besides them, Killian, and Icaruna.

"...Do you think it's such a good idea to take care of this boy? What if it messes something up?" Amarun frowned, "We need to think of our own world, after all."

"Throwing him out there would be like sending him to the gallows." Isren protested, "He needs help, like Ica said. We can't just help him and then make his life worse. He lost his family, so we need to give him one."

"I agree with her." Karas said, speaking for the first time, "He's only a child, having gone through so much. If something happens, we help him. If those mortals come here after him, we protect him."

"And the children? They would get involved as well if we did this." Elinu asked.

"They're already involved." Dagon said, "There's no chance we would be able to get them out of it unless we sent them to the mortal realm, and I doubt they would want to leave Ian behind."

"For those who wish to get rid of Ian, raise your hand." Amarun, Gluda, and Gidd did so, "For those who wish to help Ian, raise your hand." Dagon, Tithus, Elinu, Isren, and Karas raised their hands.

"The rest of us want to see how it goes, I guess." Sikander spoke, not just for himself but also for Ur. He was pretty sure Saleron and Zulas would have voted in favor for Ian to stay, too.

* * *

 _ **Second chapter! And yes, I got a lot of this from the Tera Wiki, but also added some of my own stuff to it, too! Can you figure out which is which? Also, Zulas' name can either be that or Zuras, and I want to stick with Zulas; it sounds better! Anyway, read & review!**_


End file.
